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Choosing Study Pathways – Higher education courses explained

When your child is in school they may not know what they want to study beyond their senior secondary compulsory education. So how do they go about choosing study pathways? In this blog, I’ll briefly explain some higher education course titles and definitions.

Higher Education explained & our Podcast with Kate Pease

In our latest podcast, we talk to a past client of mine. Kate came to see me in 2017 when she was in year 12 (for clarity, in the UK the final year is year 13). Kate had an interest in studying either an Arts degree or a Commerce degree but needed help in making a decision. Kate is based in Victoria, Australia, and as she mentions, was interested in a really comprehensive course at the University of Melbourne. Kate referenced our work together and how important it was for her to find clarity around her options and then within her course of choice, her core subjects, and other study options.

So what we then discussed in the podcast was some of that ‘language’, or terminology, of degree courses.

To be clear, higher education study is not for everyone, however, for Kate, she felt that a 3-year bachelor's degree would be interesting. For this reason, she had made particular subject choices in year 10, which is when your child’s school will require them to choose from a long list of study preferences for their formal senior secondary qualifications. She knew that for some areas of study she needed to complete certain subjects in her final school years, years 11 and 12.

So in brief, in this blog, I’ll summarise higher education course terminology.

Higher Education courses explained

Comprehensive Courses – Broad courses with lots of choice of study areas – Examples are: Arts, Science courses Specialist Courses – Well defined courses with a fairly clear employment outcome – Examples are: Education, Medicine, Marine Engineering, Cyber Security, Supply-Chain Management courses